Junk Replaces McCully at UFC 76

An injury to Justin McCully’s elbow will prevent him from fighting Chritian Wellisch at UFC 76 on September 22. Filling in for the Team Punishment heavyweight will be big ol’ Hawaiian heavyweight Scott Junk. Junk, after losing his first pro MMA fight to Ricco Rodriquez two years ago, has rattled off six straight wins, five of which have come in the very first round. UFC 76 will mark Junk's UFC debut and his fourth fight of 2007.

Gouveia Out of UFC 76

The following was posted over at UFC.com:

"Due to a broken nose suffered in training, Wilson Gouveia has been scrapped from his UFC 76 bout with Jason Lambert at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California on September 22nd. The intriguing 205-pound matchup is expected to be rescheduled in the future, and due to time constraints in finding a suitable opponent for Lambert, the UFC 76 card will now feature eight bouts."

I like what I've seen from Gouveia. He's a young, heavy-handed Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt who I think matches up very well with Lambert, and I'm glad that the UFC will reschedule this fight.

Morning Droppings

- Undefeated lightweight Thiago Tavares and the always exciting Tyson Griffin are scheduled to fight as part of what is turning out to be an outstanding UFC 76 card. Don't be surprised if Tavares vs. Griffin turns out to be the fight of the night.

- In preparation for his UFC 75 fight against Matt Hammill, undefeated UFC light heavyweight Michael "The Count" Bisping will be travelling up to Big Bear, CA to train for a month with new UFC light-heavyweight champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson.

- Kalib Starnes will make his next UFC octagon appearance against Alan Belcher in a middleweight bout at UFC 77 in Cincinnati.

- “Handsome” Matt Wiman, best known for his TUF 5 appearance and for eating a vicious flying knee from Spencer Fisher at UFC 60, will face fellow lightweight Michihiro Omigawa at UFC 76.

- On Wednesday (July 25), the IFL will announce the Grand Prix qualifiers for each division. Four fighters from each of the IFL’s five weight classes will compete in the IFL Grand Prix, which will be held over the course of several events. For more, check back in with Kodiak MMA's IFL Grand Prix coverage.

Shogun vs. Forrest at UFC 76?

The following is a translated message from Brazilian mixed martial arts mag TATAME:

"Master Rudimar Fedrigo confirmed to us first-hand that Mauricio Shogun will fight the American Forrest Griffin at UFC 76, which will happen on 22th September in USA."

Rudimar, the founder of the famed Chute Boxe camp, reportedly sad that he and Rua "went specially to Las Vegas to sign the 4-fight contract and record that pre-fight video that shows before the fight."

The news was also reported this morning on Tagg Radio.

The UFC, however, has not yet confirmed the bout, and until they do, I'll hold off on any "Run, Forrest, run!!!" references.

Morning Droppings

- Gracie fighter and TUF 5 season winner Nate Diaz will will reportedly make his next UFC appearance as part of the September 19 UFC Fight Night event against Junior Assuncao.

- The Chuck Liddell vs. Keith Jardine headlining fight for UFC 76 is now official.



- Iowa Silverbacks middleweight Ryan McGivern will not be competing in the August 2 IFL semifinals East Rutherford, NJ. McGivern will be replaced by former Portland Wolfpack fighter Gerald Harris.



- The Fight Network is reporting that Royce Gracie did not submit a written appeal to the CSAC to contest steroid use allegations after testing positive for Nandrolone Metabolite, an anabolic steroid, following his June 2 win over Kazushi Sakaraba. Gracie has instead decided to pay the fine and sit out a because he doesn't want to pay the legal fees.

Morning Droppings

- EliteXC president Gary Shaw says that the company's deal with Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou has fallen through and the Cameroon native is now expected to sign with K-1 Hero’s in Japan.

- With Wanderlei Silva off the UFC 76 September card, former UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell is expected to face Keith Jardine in the event's headlining fight. This is a lackluster main event, and Jardine is no substitute for Silva.

- Fighter/referee extraordiannaire Herb Dean had to pull out of his Cage Rage 22 fight with Dave Legano due to an eye injury. The big Herbivore later announced that he will retire from fighting and stick to being a mediocre referee.

- Speaking of this weekend's Cage Rage event, I came across this little gem on MMAWeekly.com: "Joe Mac vs. Jeremy Bailey did not happen due to Joe Mac's face being slashed by a knife the night before."

Dana: Chuck vs. Wanderlei “Not Happening”

I figured as much.

UFC president Dana White recently told Yahoo! Sports that Wanderlei Silva has backed out of the fight, which was scheduled for September 22’s UFC 76.

Yahoo! Sports reports that Silva no longer wanted to fight Liddell, White had been informed.

“This is the worst news I could have possibly gotten. It’s horrendous. I have been trying to make this fight for six years. I have done everything in my power I could do over the last six years to make this fight and it’s still not happening. I just don’t see it happening now,” White lamented.

While I have a hard time believing that Wanderlei would “duck” any man, especially his cold-war nemesis Chuck Liddell, I can understand why he’d be wary to make his UFC debut against the dangerous Iceman. Wanderlei is coming off of consecutive KO losses, so facing a true knockout artist in Liddell might not be the best course of action.

At this point, Dana White is uncertain whether he wants to keep Liddell on the the UFC 76 card and is unsure what the card’s main event will be – Shogun Rua vs. Lyoto Machida? Jon Fitch vs. Diego Sanchez? Evan Tanner vs. the dreaded TBA? None of the above?

Stay tuned.

Wanderlei Silva Site Confirms Liddell Match

A statement was posted in Portuguese on Wanderlei Silva's web site indicating that a September 22 fight with Chuck Liddell is on. Also on Wanderlei's site was the picture seen at right.

I noticed that neither the picture nor the statement appears on the English-language Wanderlei Silva page.

This is the third time that a Liddell/Silva fight has been "confirmed," so I'll wait for official confirmation from Dana White and the UFC.

Dana White Talks UFC Light-Heavies

There's been a lot going down recently with the UFC LHW division, so here's some of the latest 205-lb. news from UFC president Dana White.

- Dan Henderson will fight Quinton "Rampage" Jackson at UFC 75 in what will be a unification bout for the UFC and Pride belts. This is excellent news.

It was reported a while back that this fight would be non-title, and then it was supposedly for the UFC belt only, which seemed stupid, so I'm glad to see champion vs. champion for all the marmalade. Fittingly, UFC 75 has been officially titled "Champion vs. Champion."

And as I wrote earlier, even if Henderson loses his LHW belt to Jackson, he's still got the Pride middleweight strap. Henderson vs. Silva, to me at least, is infinitely more exciting than Silva-Franklin. But let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet...

- White says that former UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell will "probably" make his return to the Octagon in September. No opponent has been cited. Wanderleisilvawayswhat...

- According to a Gainesville Sun article, White is claiming that Mauricio “Shogun” Rua is likely to make his UFC debut against Ryoto Machida at UFC 76. MMAWeekly reports that both Rua and Machida were scheduled to fight at UFC 76 against the dreaded TBA, so this match-up gives them each an opponent in one another. This could be an excellent showcase of Machida's polished mixed martial artistry and against Rua's furiously technical Chute Box style in a match-up between the Chute Boxe vs. Black House camps.

This fight excites me because 1) it's Shogun we're talking about here, folks, and 2) Machida is an excellent fighter who, in my opinion, has been largely overlooked by most MMA fans, partly because none of his UFC fights have been televised. The man is undefeated and holds wins over Rich Franklin and BJ Penn. Shogun, meanwhile, is widely regarded by many as the best 205-pounder on the planet, especially now that Wanderlei Silva and Chuck Liddell have both lost their belts.